From the Hindu scripture called the Laws of Manu ; "Animals, drums, illiterates, low castes and women are worthy of being beaten."

I just watched the movie about the life of Phoolan Devi. The 1994 movie, " Bandit Queen ". She was child of a Shudra family that rebelled against the inequities about her, became an infamous Dacoit bandit and then later a politician before being gunned down herself in her late 30s. Reading about her I was also reminded about the Dacoit that became a BK called Pancham Singh, or 'Punch'em up Singh' as we used to call him. Is he still a BK?

Phoolan's story was horrific. A child bride at 11, traded as she was, for a secondhand bicycle and a cow for her Father, beatings, multiple rapes at the hands of higher classes, authority figures such as police and bandits. Although the story was romanticised, it is hard not to feel deeply sorry for her and her kind and loathing for the males of ruling class Thakurs. Her Father said of her, " a daughter is always a burden ...", typical of the male and class-centered culture that she was born in the late 1950s where women were still chattel. It must have been much worse before. Is it still much the same in rural India now?

It brought home to me come of the context for the BK's lifestyle, especially of the early years and I wondered if this area, women's rights, was one where they were still active and if it could be said that they had had any positive effect on Indian culture? The sex is portray as endlessly brutal and against her will. Women seem to have no position in the eyes of men and the authorities and are constantly and deeply humiliated.

I wonder how true this is of women's experience in India? And if this is the general impression and stereotype Indian women have of sex and relationships?

A quick Google reveals that little seem to have changed for the Dalits under the Thakur rule. It utterly destroys the stereotypical image of wise and wonderful Mythical Mystic India as sold to the West.

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Daily Mail wrote:In certain Asian cultures, sons are more highly prized than daughters because it is believed they will work from a younger age and carry on the family name.

In India, girls are considered an economic burden as their parents traditionally need to provide a dowry payment for them when they get married - often resulting in financial ruin or extreme hardship for many families when the women marry.

Last year, research revealed that between 1990 and 2005, about 1,500 fewer girls were born to Indian mothers living in England and Wales than would have been statistically probable for this group.

In the Nineties, 112 boys were born for every 100 girls. Between 2000 and 2005 this rose to 114 boys for every 100 girls.